A Rainbow of Stars

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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, billions of stars shone brightly. Fast-forward to today – an incredible 35 million years later – and the light from those stars has finally crossed the Universe and reached Earth. Light is faster than anything else in the Universe, but it still takes time for it to travel through space. After such an epic journey, it only seems right that astronomers have captured the light to make this beautiful new photo of the distant galaxy.

In the photo you can see that the colour of the galaxy is different in the centre and the outer regions. The galaxy looks more yellow and orange towards the centre (astronomers say it is “reddish”), while it is blue in the outer parts. This is because of the colours of the stars that are found in these regions of the galaxy. Older stars are redder than younger stars and live in the centre. Young stars are blue and live further out.

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